


Julie & Julia

by Historical_Fangirl



Category: Bandstand - Oberacker/Oberacker & Taylor, Julie and The Phantoms (TV)
Genre: Crossover, Eventual Romance, F/M, Family, Fluff, Friendship, Gen, Music, Post-Season/Series 01, Slow Dancing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-17
Updated: 2020-09-17
Packaged: 2021-03-07 18:22:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,325
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26512099
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Historical_Fangirl/pseuds/Historical_Fangirl
Summary: Julie and Luke listen to music together early one Saturday morning (and they finally get their dance).
Relationships: Julie Molina & Luke Patterson, Julie Molina/Luke Patterson
Comments: 14
Kudos: 277





	Julie & Julia

**Author's Note:**

> I had absolutely no intention of writing this, but the idea took hold a few days ago and would not let me go. Hooray for incredibly niche crossovers!

Luke was surprised to see Julie in the studio at eight in the morning on a Saturday, going through one of the many old boxes from the loft. After a long week of early mornings preparing for school and late nights preparing for gigs, Saturday had become the unofficial “sleeping in” day for the living members of the Molina household. That left Luke, Alex, and Reggie to their own devices for a few hours, time Luke usually spent working on new songs or messing around on his guitar.

This morning, however, he had been occupied with staring forlornly into Julie’s fridge. While things had progressed in that she could now touch him and the other boys, he, Alex, and Reggie were still fundamentally dead and, as such, incapable of eating. That didn’t mean Luke missed food any less, though, and so he would occasionally indulge his brain’s self-pitying desires- if no one was around, anyway.

When Luke caught sight of Julie upon his return to the garage, he immediately slowed his footsteps. A grin spread across his face as a plan quickly formed in his mind and he jumped forward, landing inches from Julie.

“Boo!”

“Ahh!” Julie let out an ear-piercing shriek that rivaled her scream when Sunset Curve had first (quite literally) popped into her life. “Luke!”

“Sorry,” Luke tried and failed to look regretful as he plopped down on the floor next to her. “Couldn’t resist.”

Julie shook her head. “I swear, one of these days you guys are going to give me a heart attack. Then we’ll have to rename the band- _Julie the Phantom and the Phantoms_.”

“Yeah, that doesn’t have much of a ring to it, does it?” Luke looked down at the box in front of her, realizing that it was full of old records. “What’s this?”

“Some of my dad’s stuff. I woke up early and couldn’t get back to sleep, so I thought I’d go through it,” Julie explained, smiling fondly as she pulled a record out of the box. “I used to love these when I was a kid. My dad would put it on in here and he and my mom would slow dance like they were in an old movie.”

“Nice.” Luke leaned over to get a better look at the album Julie had chosen. “The Donny Nova Band Featuring Julia Trojan.” He raised an eyebrow at her. “Ya like jazz?”

“Okay, that’s the last time I let Reggie pick a movie for us to watch,” Julie said, struggling not to laugh. “But, all jokes aside, yeah. I do. Especially these guys.”

“How come?” Luke asked. If he was being honest, he’d never been big into older musical styles. Fresh, new sounds were what had always excited him, and in 1995 that had been Rock. Jazz was what his parents and grandparents listened to.

“Well, for starters, _Julia_ is a great name.” Luke chuckled at that, and Julie continued, “And… I don’t know, they just have a great story. Donny Novitski- that was Donny Nova’s real name- started the band right after getting back from serving in the Pacific during World War II. The band was all veterans, except for Julia. Her husband was killed during the war. They started out playing tiny dives and nightclubs, and eventually became one of the biggest bands of the swing era. They were underdogs, but they proved everybody wrong.”

“Just like us,” Luke said softly.

“Exactly.” Julie glanced over at him, then blushed and moved her gaze to her lap. “Sorry, that was kind of a lot. I’ve read their Wikipedia page too many times.”

“It’s okay.” Luke shifted so that he was facing Julie completely. “I don’t mind. I like hearing you talk about things that matter to you.”

Julie’s face turned so red that Luke had to force back a laugh at how flustered she was. It was the truth, though- Luke didn’t think he would ever get tired of hearing Julie speak (or sing, for that matter).

“I just really relate to Julia, you know?” Julie continued. “One of her most famous songs was about her husband, and I listened to it a lot after my mom… you know.”

“Yeah.” Luke met Julie’s eyes. “That’s really cool, Jules.”

“Thanks.”

Silence hung between them after that, stiff and awkward, until Julie cleared her throat and stood up. “I should get this stuff packed up. My dad will probably be calling me in for breakfast soon.”

“Wait a second.” Luke held up a hand to stop her. “We’ve got a few minutes. Here.” He gestured for Julie to hand over the record, which she did with a frown.

“What are you doing?”

“What’s the name of that song you were talking about?” Luke asked, slipping the vinyl disc out of its sleeve as he stood.

“Love Will Come and Find Me Again,” Julie replied hesitantly. “Luke, come on, you don’t have to-”

“Relax, Julie.” He gently placed the record on the turntable, moving the arm to the appropriate spot on the disc. The needle dropped with a soft scratch, and a rolling piano chord filled the space. The sound was crackly with age but still filled with warmth, life, and passion. Julie couldn’t help it- she grinned and closed her eyes, savoring the familiar music.

_Once upon a time, I would wake beside a man, who would make me feel like nothing could take him from me…_

“You know, I’m not an amazing dancer, but… Whaddaya say?” Luke asked, startling Julie from her trance. She opened her eyes to see him holding out a hand to her, so familiar and yet so foreign at the same time. Her stomach flipped.

“Julie?”

“Huh? Oh! Sorry. Um… sure, I guess.” Julie reached out and gently took Luke’s hand, trying to ignore how her heart was doing somersaults and her palms were sweating.

Luke’s hands were always freezing cold, but Julie didn’t mind as they began to gently sway to the music. They locked eyes, and Luke smiled.

“You’re better than me.”

“I’ve been taking dance as my PE credit for years. It’s way more fun than running around in circles every day,” Julie said. Luke chuckled, and her ears burned. _You don’t need to give him that much information, Julie._

“I played football in high school.”

“Really?” _That makes sense, since he looks… no, Julie, come on. Get it together._

“Yeah, my dad did when he was my age, so I did too. I hated it, though.”

“Mm.” Julie nodded, and the music swelled around them again.

_Lately, I’ve been thinking it’s time to take a look at what I’m doing then, clinging to ‘if only’..._

“I like this song. It’s… different,” Luke commented.

“See? I’ve converted you. Next, I’ll get Alex and Reggie, and we’ll be a jazz band.”

“I don’t know, I think Reggie’s still got his heart set on turning us into a country group.”

Julie giggled. “Too bad for him, I can’t do a southern accent.”

_Letting go of what might have been, and letting something else in, only then…_

As the music wound down, Julie was suddenly even more aware of how her heart was fluttering inside her chest. Air began to seem like a precious commodity, given how she was having trouble getting it into her lungs, and she broke away from Luke.

“What’s wrong? You okay?”

“Yeah... yeah, everything’s fine. I just remembered, I told my dad I’d get breakfast started.” It was a lame excuse, but one Julie knew Luke wouldn’t question.

“Oh, okay.” Luke gave her an awkward thumbs up. “Cool.”

“You’re welcome to join us if you want. Reggie will probably be there, and maybe Alex,” Julie offered, feeling more than a little guilty about her behavior.

“No, thanks. I’ll just hang out here until you’re done.”

“Okay.” Julie tried to smile at him, and he tried to smile at her.

_Love will come and find me again._

**Author's Note:**

> I noticed a lot of parallels between the plot of Bandstand and the plot of Julie and the Phantoms (although there are also a lot of differences), and I thought that having Julie be a fan of the Donny Nova Band would be the perfect way to tie those two universes together.
> 
> I hope everyone enjoyed that! Feel free to leave comments and kudos telling me what you thought of this, and if you haven't listened to Bandstand or watched Julie and the Phantoms before then I encourage you to do that! They're both absolutely amazing.


End file.
